14 Wyoming Experiment Station. 



pillars, and similar insects comprise the bulk of their insect 

 food — forms that are all among the most numerous as well 

 as destructive species. In writing about these birds as in- 

 sect destroyers Prof. Samuel Aughey writes : 'I happened to 

 be in the Republican valley, in southwestern Nebraska, in Au- 

 gust, 1874, when the locust invaded that region. Prairie 

 chickens and quails, that previous to their coming had a large 

 number of seeds in their stomachs, when dissected, seemed 

 now for a time to abandon all other kinds of food. At least 

 from this onward for a month little else than locusts were 

 found in their stomachs. All the birds seemed now to live 

 solely on locusts for a while.' In winter and at other times 

 of the year when insect life is scarce and difficult to obtain 

 these birds feed more or less extensively upon seeds and other 

 kinds of vegetation. Some even enter cultivated grounds and 

 seek food that belongs to the farmer, thereby doing more or 

 less direct injury. The extent of such injury, of course, de- 

 pends upon the number of birds engaged in the depredations, 

 and also on the time over which it is allowed to extend. If 

 corn and other grain is harvested at the proper time, but little 

 damage ensues ; but if allowed to remain in the field through- 

 out winter, much of the crop is liable to be taken by the birds. 

 "Perhaps no other bird that frequents the farm pays high- 

 er prices for the grain it eats than does the Quail. Living 

 about the hedgerows, groves and ravines, where insect ene- 

 mies gather and lurk during the greater part of the year, this 

 bird not only seizes large numbers of these enemies daily dur- 

 ing the summer months when they are 'abroad in the land,' 

 but all winter through it scratches among the fallen leaves and 

 other rubbish that accumulates about its haunts seeking for 

 hibernating insects of various kinds. Being a timid little crea- 

 ture, the Quail seldom leaves cover to feed openly in the fields, 

 and therefore does but little actual harm in the way of de- 

 stroying grain. In fact it only takes stray kernels that other- 

 wise migfht be lost. This bird is one of the few that feeds 



